Walking up Yonge Street without actually walking on Yonge Street…. with all it’s distractions and wrong turns. We eventually get somewhere and that somewhere may actually be where we want to be!

below: I didn’t know that such a place existed! It’s at Davenport and Belmont in case you feel the need….

below: I smiled even more when I went around the corner and encountered this sign

below: Toronto layers

below: The old stone stairs at Ramsden Park. A bit muddy at the bottom but that never stopped me.

below: Waiting for spring… or at least for some snow to melt.

below: An after school skate.

below: Old and new – exploring the lanes that run parallel to Yonge. This is Paul Hahn Lane.

below: Trespassers will be prosecuted. If you can’t read the sign, does it still count?

below: As you go north, Paul Hahn Lane becomes Sam Tile Lane.

below: The caterpillar isn’t where it was. Is this an Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland reference? Actually it’s a children’s clothing store but that doesn’t stop my from quoting Lewis Carroll, or at least a short passage. Alice’s interaction with the caterpillar is too long to include here!

“In a minute or two the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth and yawned once or twice, and shook itself. Then it got down off the mushroom, and crawled away in the grass, merely remarking as it went, ‘One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter.’ ‘One side of what? The other side of what?’ thought Alice to herself. ‘Of the mushroom,’ said the Caterpillar, just as if she had asked it aloud; and in another moment it was out of sight.”

below: At Summerhill there is no way to parallel Yonge because of the train tracks. A shout out to this young man who just previous to this moment stopped to ask me if I’d taken some great photos today. I answered that it was a bit grey to get great pictures and he concurred.

below: Infrequently photographed (the daring architecture!) and not well known, this is Summerhill subway station. It has no bus connections and the only major destination nearby is the large LCBO in the old CPR station a block away (i.e. not many people use this station).

below: Something old ans something new. I was wondering if the slate tiles on the upper storey were originals when I noticed the unobtrusive addition to the white and black house.

below: Looking south towards Rosedale station (view blocked by the white and blue temporary building for the construction next to the bridge). Tall downtown buildings in the distance. The tallest one is at 1 Bloor East and it is partially hidden by the Hudson Bay Centre tower on the other side of Bloor Street (the squarish building) and another tower that I am not sure of.

below: Another of the many “it’s a street, no it’s an alley”, passages that you find in Toronto.

below: The rust and metal of an alley infill house

below: In an area of smaller narrow houses on small lots, some creativity is required if you want to expand.

below: A concrete lined hole in the ground with access from the alley but also from the street? The beginnings of a larger development?

below: Along the way I happened upon the Toronto Lawn Tennis Club in its winter plumage.

below: Foiled! I was going to walk up through and David Balfour Park but the path is blocked… so back to Yonge Street I’m afraid.

below: He looks about as happy as I felt at that moment… but at least my arm is still intact.

below: Once on Yonge Street I discovered that traffic is even worse than usual because of lane closures. Water main repairs and/or replacements by the looks of it.

below: This is now close to St. Clair Ave and a subway station so this is where I called it quits. The days are still short and although the temperatures aren’t too bad, a cup of coffee seemed like a great idea at that moment (see the Aroma sign in the upper right corner? It was calling my name).

below: Someone doesn’t seem to mind being in traffic!

Stay positive & enjoy the trip, you’ll get there!

Oh, by the way, the photos may not be anything special (the grey day and all that) but I still had fun with them.

Summer in Toronto. Those days where it doesn’t matter where you walk, you will always encounter something interesting.

This weekend is the Taste of the Middle East festival at Yonge Dundas square, one of the many ethnic based festivals in the square over the summer. As usual, there were performances, activities, and food.

Products like date syrup were also available.

below: Young artist at work at Yonge & Dundas.

below: Adelaide Street was blocked between Yonge and Bay all weekend for a film shoot involving a large number of police cars, police officers, and dummies that look amazingly like real police officers.

below: When the Netflix series ‘Zeus’ comes out, you can play spot the Toronto locations!

below: In the Allan Lampert Gallery at Brookfield Place is an art installation “Into the Clouds”, four large, happy inflatable clouds created by ‘Friends with You’, a Los Angeles based group. They bring a positive message of light, love and happiness.

below: In front of the RBC building at the corner of Front & Bay.

below: Relief sculpture on an exterior wall of the Scotiabank Arena (formerly ACC). A series of these sculptures were made by Louis Temporale Sr. in 1938-39 on what was then the Toronto Postal Delivery Building.

below: At the foot of Bay Street, a TTC bus stops beside the Westin conference centre. The top part of the concrete building is covered by a large photographic art installation – “Milky Way Smiling” by Elizabeth Zvonar.

below: The spotlight seems to shine on a sleeping body. The location is Harbour Square Park inside the large concrete sphere that is “Sundial Folly” created by John Fung and Paul Figueiredo and installed in 1995. Whether it’s because of high water levels, or for other reasons, access to the interior of the structure is closed to the public.

below: Queens Quay at the foot of Yonge Street is not my favorite intersection. It’s not uncommon for cyclists to not realize that there is a red light and for pedestrians not to realize that just because they have a walk signal doesn’t mean that there won’t be a bicycle whizzing past.

below: … and that shape on the sidewalk across the street? That is “Between the Eyes” by Anita Windisman.

below: Future buskers

below: The public art at Pier 27 condos on Queens Quay East lies in an elevated garden between two condo buildings. This sculpture is the work of American artist Alice Aycock and it consists of a whirlwind (or tornado) form and what looks like whorls of paper. Litter blowing from the lake? It’s title is “A Series of Whirlpool Field Manoeuvres for Pier 27”.

This has been a wet spring along the waterfront. Lake Ontario has been at its highest level in years. Earlier, I had posted some photos that I took of Woodbine, Kew and Balmy beaches and the high water levels there (blog post, “water logged”). The other day I visited the beaches and walkways at the other end of the city’s waterfront, from H2O beach to Ontario Place.

below: Flooding at H2O Beach

below: All that water makes for some colourful reflections!

below: Looking west towards the old Canada Malting Company silos as the dark clouds signal an approaching storm.

below: The Empire Sandy docked along with the tugboat, M.S. Kane

below: Toronto’s fire rescue boat, the William Lyon Mackenzie, docked beside Fire Station 334. It was built in 1964 and is named for Toronto’s first mayor.

below: Queens Quay at Spadina, looking west

below: A streetcar starts to head north on Spadina

below: Playing basketball in the rain.

below: An old blue canoe at Little Norway park. A training camp for the Norway’s Air Force was located here (SW corner of Queens Quay and Bathurst) during WW2. The large rock that you can see in the photo is a 3000 pound boulder brought from Norway in 1976 to be part of a permanent monument to the people who trained and served here. In 1986 the space became Little Norway Park.

below: Looking back towards downtown and the CN Tower from the western end of Queens Quay West.

below: Lots of big puddles at Coronation Park

below: Yellow flowerpot islands

below: Someone has tied a string of small Canadian flags to the railing at Coronation Park. Happy Canada Day weekend!

below: Toronto skyline from Trillium Park, from the green trees of Coronation Park on the left and past the CN Tower to Billy Bishop airport on the far left.

below: Large granite rock in Trillium Park

below: Ontario Place, where TSN was playing to no one.

below: Flooding by the marina at Ontario Place. In the foreground is what appears to be an electrical box.

below: The Canada geese have these Muskoka chairs to themselves.

below: From the northwest corner of Ontario Place, looking west over Lake Ontario towards Etobicoke and Mississauga

Today was the day of the parade to celebrate the Raptors NBA Championship win. Today was the day that downtown was immobilized. Like many of the thousands (millions) of people, I couldn’t get anywhere near the parade. I also couldn’t get into Nathan Phillips Square, the end point of the parade. I am not sure I wanted to! Too crowded. Besides, walking around the periphery of Nathan Phillips Square still gave me a plethora of opportunities to take lots of pictures of people out celebrating.

below: Bay Street was one of the many streets that were closed. Two large screens showed footage of the parade as it progressed. In this photo, you can see a sea of red at the Prince’s gates, the entrance to the Exhibition grounds.

below: A larger picture of the screen. This photo was taken at 10:49 a.m. The parade was supposed to start at 10 a.m. I am not sure what time it arrived at Nathan Phillips Square, I was already long gone by the time it did.

There is another Raptors mural! Not on Queen West this time, but in the Dundas & Sherbourne area. It was painted by Javid Jah and luvsumone (aka Moise Frank).

below: On Yonge Street by the north end of the Eaton Centre are these words which were painted by the same two men. The letters are supposed to be 3D and rising out of a black square hole in the sidewalk. North Side rising.

below: The Raptors logo is painted on the sidewalk outside Scotiabank Arena.

below: All the TTC buses and streetcars have “We the North” signs in the window.

In just over an hour the Raptors will play the Golden State Warriers in Oakland California. It will be their third game in the NBA finals – so far the series is tied, each team has won one game. Stayed tuned!

I came across this mural of Kawhi Leonard a few days ago. When I tried to find out when the picture was painted and who the artist was, I discovered that the mural had already been updated.

So back I went – to what has become a popular spot. Now the picture is Kawhi’s game-winning shot in the final seconds of the final game against the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference semi-finals.

By the way, it’s not painted. It’s printed on vinyl in 6 panels and then stuck on the wall. And the storefront that it’s on? No sign? It’s ‘OD Toronto’ which is a consignment store with more Kawhi murals and stuff inside.

In case you haven’t heard, Raptors won last night to lead the NBA Eastern Conference finals 3 games to 2 against the Milwaukee Bucks. The next game is tomorrow night (Saturday). If the Raptors win tomorrow, they advance to the NBA Finals for the first time ever…. and the parties will begin. If they lose tomorrow, one more game will be played on Monday night. The Western Conference finals are already over; the Golden State Warriors beat the Portland Trailblazers in four straight games.

UPDATES:
1. A third mural appeared after here the Raptors won the Eastern Conference championship.
2. Another Raptors mural, near Dundas & Sherbourne